Clergy work time
commitments: a better way
Many members of churches
think a clergy person works only an hour on Sunday, but responsible boards know
better. What they don’t realize is that
the standard “four weeks of vacation” which looks generous at first glance, is
actually in the “burn out” ball park.
Assume a worker with a
regular job works five days a week, gets two weeks of vacation and nine public
holidays. Quick math tell us that person
is at work 244 days a year. (365 minus
104 weekend days minus 10 vacation minus 9 holidays = 242)
Assume a clergy person
works six days a week (Sunday is not to be counted as a half day), and gets
four weeks vacation and nine public holidays.
Quick math tells us that person is at work 284 days a year. (365 minus 52 minus 20 minus 9). You see the problem. Also a clergy person is often on call during
off hours and expected to run an institution and be at work when other staff
and volunteers are (so much for taking off an extra weekday to even things
out.) And sometimes people want funerals
or weddings or Christmas services on public holidays.
For a win/win situation
mandate your clergy person to work 5 ½ days a week (take off 1 ½) and take off
six weeks of vacation and the public holidays, or comp days. Now the math looks like this: 365 – 78 – 9 – 30 and you expect this person
to be at work 248 days a year. Be flexible.
Some weeks your pastor can take off three days and some weeks there
won’t be a day off at all. Make sure the
clergy care committee reviews it all on a regular (half year) basis. If you hire a responsible pastor s/he won’t
be likely to take off that much time, and will feel good about the generosity
of the board and the board will feel that the pastor is really committed to the
congregation. Everybody wins.
As a general rule, it is
also healthy (as in promoting healthy, happy staff) to allow staff and clergy
to accumulate up to ½ of their annual leave time to be carried into the next
year. If your clergy person manages to
take 20 (of 30) days of vacation, and 60 (of 78) days of the weekly leave time
s/he might then carry 14 additional days into the new year, or have an
additional 14 days of paid time if that is a terminal year.
There are many sabbatical
guidelines. A common one is to
accumulate one month for each three years of service. That allows a person, in year nine, to put
together a three month sabbatical plus vacation time, which is enough time for
an academic course. As a general rule a
clergy person should return to the congregation to share new insights and
energy gained on the sabbatical unless it is understood that it is a terminal
sabbatical, making up for sabbatical time not taken, or where a relationship is
ending because of burn out and disappointment.
Accumulating a month every three years requires the congregation
annually to bank 10 salary days (plus inflation guard). For stipend and housing of $85,000 this would
mean putting aside $2,328 the first year of a new pastor. Don’t wait until year 9 and then try to have
a bake sale for the $23,000 you’ll need.
It won’t work, and everyone will feel bad. Better to have been honest and say you’ll
allow sabbatical time with benefits but no salary, that way you can afford
supply clergy and hope that your pastor has a rich uncle who died and left
money.
